We're Here to Help Ourselves

If you've ever worked in a large (or medium, or small) organization, you probably know that there are always changes that could be made to make operations a bit more efficient, or to reduce unnecessary expenses. In most workplaces, these are not things that would be readily apparent to a stranger who just walked in the door one day.

The potential improvements that would benefit most organizations are usually things that are noticed by people familiar with the current workflow, people who know what is being done and what the outcomes are. In any case, suddenly eliminating half (or three-fourths or a third or a quarter) of the employees would not improve productivity. And, even if removing some employees would increase efficiency, only someone who knows what tasks are being done, and by whom, could correctly decide who to let go.

The same concept applies to reducing the budget. An outsider might arbitrarily declare, as some sort of eccentric guiding principle, that everyone should just stop ordering office supplies, or that nobody should ever spend more than $5.00 on pencils. In many offices, people may be wasting paper or overwatering the plants. Nevertheless, only someone who actually works there can see what is necessary and useful, and what is wasteful.

If I wanted to improve efficiency and economy in an organization, I would take some time to work with the people and help them to identify areas for improvement. If I wanted to completely destroy an organization so that it could not fulfill its purpose, I would send in an angry clown to just fire half the staff for no reason, and I'd take away the operating budget and order a halt to all normal procedures.

 

Would You Let This Guy Hold Your Lunch Money?

In 2022, Elon Musk paid 44 billion dollars for the social media platform Twitter. Under Musk's management (or, some would say, mismanagement), the company, inexplicably renamed "X", lost nearly 80% of its value within two years.

At the start of 2024, Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle business, was valued at $58.3 billion. By the end of the year, its value was estimated at $43 billion, a drop of nearly 26%. Although Tesla's decline may have been partly fueled by Musk's reputation as a bullying goon involved in right-wing extremist politics, the ugliness of the Cybertruck, along with a series of vehicles fires and explosions, didn't help.

Musk also owns the Boring Company, a tunnel construction service notable for impractical proposals and failed or abandoned projects.

SpaceX is another Musk business, a space exploration technology company. Although the company's failed launches and rocket explosions have attracted attention, it has also succeeded in many of its ventures, which include cargo delivery to the International Space Station. SpaceX's rapid success was built on financial support from the U.S. government, in the form of lucrative federal contracts and grants.

Another Musk venture is Starlink, an Internet satellite service, hated by many astronomers for blocking our view of the stars. Starlink has had many satellite malfunctions and failures. As an Internet service, it is expensive, and has a reputation for poor customer support. Musk has also been accused of using Starlink in attempts to manipulate global politics by making it either available or unavailable in different areas. As a proponent of vicious and disproportionate revenge, Musk used his influence with America's Republican administration to terminate funding for USAID, an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, thus cutting off food, medicine, and shelter for millions of needy people, apparently as punishment for the agency's questioning its relationship with Starlink.

Neuralink is a company attempting to build implantable brain-computer interface systems. The company has been criticized for the deaths of primates used in its experiments. Following false statements about the deaths, a national physicians group asked the SEC to investigate Musk for possible securities fraud.

Musk formed a supposedly temporary organization known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which masquerades as a U.S. government department. The formation of new departments requires the approval of Congress, which DOGE did not receive. Although its stated purpose is to find and eliminate government waste, DOGE's most visible activity has been the infiltration of government agencies and departments for the purpose of gaining access to computer systems and allegedly harvesting cititzens' financial and medical data. Despite consensus that DOGE's activities have been illegal, there has been no intervention by law enforcement. Musk has been accused of staging a coup and attempting to completely destroy the U.S. government.

Elon Musk was born to a wealthy family in South Africa in 1971. In 1989, he emigrated to Canada, where he became a citizen. In 1995, he and his brother Kimball moved to California. Kimball has publically admitted that they were illegal immigrants. Somehow, Elon acquired U.S. citizenship in 2002.

• NASDAQ on X/Twitter’s Valuation Decline
• Tesla Fire lists 232 incidents.
• A Forbes contributor compares the Cybertruck to broccoli
• Can we please let the Boring Company die already?
• How Federal Grants and Contracts Helped Elon Musk Reach New Heights
• Alleged USAID Probe Into Starlink Raises Elon Musk Conflict Concerns
• Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals
• Physicians Group Asks SEC to Investigate Elon Musk for Securities Frau
• What will it take to stop Elon Musk and DOGE?
• Wikipedia article on Elon Musk

 

He Wants More

A unimaginably wealthy businessman has so much money, he could give a million dollars to every person in the country, and he'd still be the richest guy in the world. Yet this person wants to reduce the resources available to the rest of us. Why? Why would someone who has everything want to take away the relatively small amounts others have?

The answer is greed. Most of us can understand ordinary greed, the desire to have more than you've already got, the wish to be rich and to have fancy things. But few of us can comprehend the special type of ultra-greed that drives the oligarchs. They are NEVER satisfied. Five yachts aren't enough, if it's possible to get one that's fancier. A fleet of private jets isn't enough, if there's a chance a new one would be faster or more luxurious.

While we can, on an intellectual level, comprehend that someone might feel driven to improve upon his already excellent situation, what we can't understand is why someone who already has everything desperately wants to take the little we have away from us.

The problem with the never-satisfied, ultra-greedy oligarchs is that they don't just want a lot, they don't just want more, they want EVERYTHING. Anything you have, no matter how small, is something they don't have. They want it. This is why they don't care if we die of preventable illnesses, or starvation, or nuclear holocaust. Only if we are dead can they feel sure that we have nothing and they have everything.

As they build their doomsday bunkers, they fantasize about a world in which more than half the population is annihilated. Unfortunately for them, they need workers for a few things, so they can't quite wish for everyone but themselves to vanish.

 

Ranting About Billionaires

Is your yearly budget less than a million dollars? If you had a billion dollars, you could spend a million a year for a thousand years, and you still wouldn't run out, because all that time, your money would have been invested in accounts that pay interest and dividends, so more money just keeps rolling in.

Now, imagine you had not just one billion, not two billion, but a hundred billion, or three hundred billion. With 300 billion, you could spend a million dollars EVERY DAY, and you'd have money left over at the end of 22,000 years.

That sure seems like enough money, doesn't it? But the guys who have that much, or close to it, don't think it's enough at all. They can own dozens of homes in different countries, buy private islands, own personal jets and huge yachts, indulge in collecting rare automobiles or historical jewelry, go anywhere they like, purchase any clothing, any food they want, get cosmetic surgery every year, send their children to the greatest universities, spend the night gambling in Monte Carlo, ski at the most exclusive resorts, get the best medical care in the world, bribe politicians just about everywhere, build stadiums and skyscrapers with their name on it, and - just for a change of pace - donate millions to charity. But they still don't think they have enough. They are constantly scheming to get even more. Many of those schemes require taking away what other people - you and me - have.

They want the power to make us pay for the infrastructure and institutions that make modern life possible for them. While they make $5000 a minute, they begrudge us $15 an hour. They want to eliminate the rules that keep our food safe and our water clean, because they can make bigger profits if they don't have to be clean or careful.

Why? Why do they want to cancel the retirement income of the elderly, cut off health care for the middle class, or withhold food from schoolchildren? They want every possible penny in their own pockets. They already have more than enough, more than too much. But they aren't satisfied. Greed gnaws at them the way hunger gnaws at a starving animal. More, more, more, howl the voices inside them. The sight of comfortable people enjoying safe, healthy lives fills them with anxiety. Those people driving nice cars and living in pretty houses represent pennies that should be in the billionaires' pockets. Your retirement account is cash that they want.

They are much happier when the world around them is populated by hungry peasants dressed in rags and dying young, because then they can feel assured that they have taken everything for themselves.

Links:

♦ Billionaires Lying to Convince Us to Destroy Our Government
♦ Billionaires Hate Us